Sand Tray Therapy: Should You Interpret a Child’s Play? (3 Things to Consider)

You just know what your client’s sand tray means… but should you say it?

In this episode, we dive into one of the biggest clinical dilemmas in play therapy:
 👉 Do you share your interpretation of a child’s sand tray scene—or hold it?

If you’ve ever felt that pull—the moment where everything clicks and you want to connect the dots for your client—this conversation is for you.

Because here’s the truth:
 What you say (and when you say it)… can either deepen the healing—or shut it down.

In this free podcast episode, you’ll learn how to hold the sand tray process in a way that protects the therapeutic space while strengthening your clinical decision-making.

🎯 In this episode, you’ll learn:
• The real role of interpretation in sand tray therapy
• Why timing matters more than insight
• 3 key factors to consider before sharing what you see
• How to avoid disrupting the child’s internal healing process
• What to do when you’re tempted to say something

🧠 This is for play therapists who:
 • Second-guess what to say in play therapy sessions
 • Feel unsure about interpreting sand tray scenes
 • Want to move beyond “just observing” into intentional, theory-driven work using play therapy
 • Are ready to trust their clinical judgment with more confidence

✨ Whether you’re new to sand tray therapy or refining your skills, this episode will help you stay grounded, intentional, and aligned with the healing process—without rushing to interpret.

🔔 Subscribe for more play therapy trainings on sand tray, trauma, attachment, and working with children & teens.

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Check out my free resources for mental health professionals working with children, adolescents, and families who want to integrate play therapy and expressive arts into their clinical work.

I work with individuals and agencies to develop successful strategies and meet the treatment needs of your child and adolescent clients and their families using play therapy & expressive arts.

Contact me to schedule a free 30-minute video call if you're ready to level up your skills

Transcript

0:02

Welcome to Next Level Play Therapy. A weekly podcast dedicated to supporting the next generation of child and adolescent therapists to provide exceptional play therapy services. We'll explore all things play therapy. To elevate your work with children and adolescents using the therapeutic powers of play. I'll discuss practical tips and ideas so you can provide a transformative experience for your young clients and make a real difference in their lives. So get ready to take your play therapy skills to the next level and make a lasting impact in the lives of children, adolescents, and families. There. Welcome to this week's episode of Next Level Play Therapy. If you have ever wondered whether or not to share your interpretation of your client's sand tray scene with them, you're sitting there in the play therapy session, your your client has created a sand tray. You are watching them build it and you know exactly what it means. The question is, should you share your interpretation so you can help them connect the dots and help them get to a deeper place of healing? Or do you hold it? That's a question that comes up all the time. In fact, I just facilitated a two day sand tray training last weekend. And we talked a lot about this. Do you share your interpretation of what's happening in the sand tray with your client? It's a critical question because it can be the difference between helping them to heal or shutting down the therapy process because it no longer feels safe for them because you interpreted too soon and they weren't ready. So that's what we're talking about this week. Um, Sandtray therapy. Should you interpret a child's pre play? Three things to consider. So if you're joining me live, I would love to know who's here. Post your name in the comments. What population do you work with? Are you using sand tray therapy? How do you how do you manage this dilemma? Do you interpret? Do you not interpret? What play therapy model are you using? And if you're watching the replay, feel free to still join the conversation. I would love to continue this conversation after the broadcast ends today. And for those of you listening on the podcast, frail, um, feel free to message me, pop over to Instagram or even those of you on LinkedIn. Or if you're watching on YouTube, feel free to post in the comments or, or message me on Instagram. If you are listening to the podcast and you want to join the conversation, feel free to follow me over on Instagram. Um, at Renewing Hearts training. All righty. So let's get into the topic for today. There's three things we want to consider, and in this episode what we're gonna talk about are what is the real role of interpretation in play therapy, especially we're you're using the sand tray making prog process. Why timing matters more than insight. And three key factors to consider before you share what you see and how to avoid disrupting that internal healing process. And then also, what are some alternatives that you can do If you're tempted to say something and you really wanna help your clients go a little bit deeper, I'm gonna share some tips that I learned that have served me well in the play therapy process. And so the first thing we wanna talk about is what's the role of themes in play therapy? So when we're talking about whether or not we should interpret, we're also talking about the themes that you're recognizing in your client's sand tray. So what are themes? I've talked about that a little bit in the past. I'll talk a little bit about it today.'Cause it's, it's an important part of being a play therapist. It's also one of those critical skills that takes time to develop and I, I really feel like if you're wanting to improve your skill with understanding and recognizing play themes and what to do with that. The best way to learn how to do that one is to take some training, but also I would say is get into a play therapy community, get consultation, pull your other play therapy colleagues that you trust and feel comfortable with. It's something I feel like it's more helpful to learn and get feedback with. That kind of helps you figure out what you're seeing and also making sure you're kind of holding some of your, um, unconscious bias or not really seeing the total possibilities of what's going on in there. Since, um, themes in play therapy, I feel like that's a hard one that we're always kind of ongoing learning about. Essentially though, what are themes. Sorry, my, my throat's a little dry. I got sick. Oh my gosh. I got a really, really bad cold and a really bad case of laryngitis, um, about a month ago. And my voice is still not back fully. You can hear it kind of crackly and I'm like, ah, is it ever gonna heal? So it gets a little dry. I have to take some water here and there. So essentially, what are themes? Play therapy. When we're talking about themes in play therapy, we're talking about, um, what is that? What is that psychological, internalized thing going on for your client? Like, what's the underlying struggle or distress or thing that your client's trying to figure out. It's their internal process and what they're struggling with or what they're trying to make sense of, or what they're trying to figure out what to do with. And so play therapy themes are essentially the way that children use the play therapy process, how they use the sand tray making process to kind of externalize that as a way of helping it out. So we're looking at the behaviors, we're looking at what they say to give us a clue what's going on inside, because that's what we're trying to get a sense of. So in traditional talk therapy, we would be listening really deeply to what your clients are saying, how they're saying it, what they say, what they don't say, their um, their body language, voice tone. We're looking at all of those things. In play therapy and in the sand tray making process, we're looking at their play process. So for sand tray, we're looking at the symbols they've chosen. We're looking at how those are used in the sandbox or that sand tray. We're looking at what's near each other, what's not near each other, how it's used. Is it above the sand, below the sand in the sandbox, outta the sandbox? The colors of things, the makeup of things, what's facing what, what's not, what's facing away. We're looking at all of these things in addition to what clients say, what they don't say. What's in there? What's not in there in the sand tray. So there's a lot of factors that go into identifying what is going on in the sand Tray making process, which is one of the reasons I spent a lot of time in my sand tray trainings, um, having the, the participants create sand trays, and then we go around to each one and learn how to, not only how to hold that sand tray making process, but also how to make sense of what's in there. And because sand tray, the sand tray therapy process is a projective process, meaning it's your clients internalized meaning making of what's going on in their lives and about themselves, about other people, about the world, about relationships. Because it's a projective process that they use the sand and the symbols and sand tray in the play therapy room. Then we wanna make sure to protect that because we, we have our own biases about what? What means, what? We have our own learning, where we are in the learning process. Um. So there's a whole lot of factors that are cons that we have to consider, which is why it can be a little bit of a challenge, which is why I always recommend having a play therapy community. In fact, with this, uh, with any of my trainings, I have another one coming up in June about, um, working with traumatized children. That I'll talk a little bit more about, but the, the, the sand tray training that I just did this weekend, the one coming up, one of the things that I've decided to do is, um, to give people who register, if they're not already a member, to give them 60 days access to Elevation Circle Play Therapy, elevation Circle, which is my kind of first tier play therapy membership. For the purpose of in there we staff case, you know, we have a monthly case consultation. We do some other things, book club. We have a group chat, we have mini trainings in play therapy, elevation Circle. So just a way to continue giving support, but also practicing the skills that we talked about during the play therapy training. So, um, that's one of the reasons I spent a lot of time on that's because it is kind of a complicated process and eventually we kind of get the hang of it. So play therapists are learning how to recognize play therapy themes so that we can make sense of what's going on in our client's play therapy process. And what they're working through. And we use that to help us with our clinical decision making and also assessing where they are in the treatment process. But here's the thing, especially if you're new to this process, I hope you hear what I'm saying here, but it's also a good reminder for those of us that have been doing it for a while. And I remind myself of this as well.'cause we're, you know, we're all in this together. Um, ultimately the sand tray making process in play therapy in order to help your clients heal does not require that you know what's going on in the sand tray in order for to be effective. It's more important for you to know how to hold that sanctuary making process. So clients experience a free and protected space for healing and they feel like they can use it in the way that they need to use it for healing. So ultimately, we don't really need to know what's going on internally? And sometimes I'll be honest, sometimes I still don't know. There are times I'm in a session, even now I think I really don't know what's going on in here. And you know what? I'll figure it out later because in that moment, the most important thing for me to do is to be fully present and attuned, congruent with unconditional positive regard and empathy. Being fully attuned and present is, is the, I always say that's the glue. It's the secret sauce that makes everything work. We can always fall back on just being present in the moment, holding that space for healing and knowing how to do that when you are in play therapy with your clients when you're in a play therapy session. When you're using that, when your client is using the sand tray making process, it's more important to be present and know how to hold that. Than it is to kind of be able to analyze in that moment excuse me. What is going on with your clients. I'll be honest, I usually figure that out later when I am doing my progress notes because I'll, I'll use themes as part of my. Progress note writing process. So, um, yes, themes are important. It's important to understand and it helps with your decision making. It helps you figure out where they are in that sand tray making process. But in that moment, when you're in that space with your client, it's more important to know how to hold that process. So the second thing to consider.'cause we're talking about three things to consider of whether or not you should interpret your client's, um, sand tray scene to them. The second thing to consider, and this one is what's gonna help you figure out what you say and when you say it and how you say it. So, your play therapy model is what's gonna determine what you're gonna do. Your play therapy model influences how you hold that space, how you make meaning of what's happening in that play therapy session. What you say when you say and how you say it, that includes when you're using sand tray in the play therapy process. For example, a child-centered play therapist, and a sand play. And, uh, you'll notice I'm using the, the term sand tray predominantly because sand tray therapy is different than sand play. Sand play therapist and child-centered play therapist don't interpret the, the client seen to them. They hold the space. They don't do interpretation. There's a difference in the way that they hold the space. So a sand play therapist is gonna hold that space a little differently than a child-centered play therapist, a child-centered play therapist. If you are using child-centered play therapy and your client is using the sand tray. You're still gonna stick with Child-Centered play therapy, nothing's really gonna change. You are still gonna track the way that you're tracking it, the all the other play therapy models. Um, there's, there's pretty much in most of the other play therapy models, if you're using sand tray, it means you're not using sand play and you're probably using another play therapy model or more of an integrated approach. So. If your, your other play therapy models are going to mostly include a time in the play therapy process where you are going to work on helping your clients make sense of what's going on in the playroom with the issues going on in their lives for the purpose of helping them understand what's going on internally and how the way in which they're going about getting their needs met is probably contributing to the problem and not really helping them, and that there's probably a more effective way to go about getting their, the, getting their needs met. So, for example, if you are a, if you are, um, if you're using Adlerian play therapy, then you might, you might do a directed play therapy prompt and uh, maybe depending on where they are in the play therapy process using Adlerian play therapy. So which stage of Adlerian play therapy are they in? Let's say if they're further along in that play therapy process, you might kind of help them connect what's going on in the sand tray with what's going on in their everyday life? Or if you're a Gestalt play therapist, similar thing, you're, you're probably gonna go about doing it in a different way because your play therapy model influences what you say, how you say, and when you say it, and how you make sense of what's happening in the, in the play therapy process or the play therapy session. So. Um, this is where it really matters that you are grounding your play therapy approach in a play therapy model. Even, even if you're an in consider yourself to be an integrative play therapist and where you use an integrative play therapy model, you're still using theory models. So you're still influenced by those theory models that you are blending together. And so whether or not you interpret or help your clients connect the dots is gonna be heavily to dependent upon your play therapy model. Um, so those, so the third thing to think about is. What is their readiness to receive the information? This is true even in traditional talk therapy, right? It's true in play therapy. It's true In, in, um, traditional talk therapy, what's their readiness for receiving the information you want to have them understand. And again, your plate therapy model is gonna influence what you do and how you do it, what stage, because usually in the first stage or two, you're really working on building rapport, building a sense of safety and security. You might be doing some psychoeducation. Um, you are just really laying the groundwork for later in therapy when they're ready to go deeper and they're ready to receive that information. That's I think for most play therapy models, that's usually the third stage of play therapy. Um, and again, this is, to me, this is where it can be really helpful to be in a play therapy community. Um, so I have two memberships. I, I mentioned Play therapy elevation Circle already. I have another one. This is kind of like tier two. It's the deeper di, it's like the deeper dive. We go heavy into skill building, much smaller groups, and that's Play Therapy Academy. Um, a lot of people in Play Therapy Academy are pursuing their RPT credential, which means they're working on the core competencies, um, of be becoming a play therapist. So, um, in Play Therapy Academy, one of the things that we do, I think most of, I, I think it's really useful. I know. I enjoy it and I know a lot of the, if you ask Play Therapy Academy members, what they really enjoy, and they would say the group process where we put all heads, all our heads together. So maybe somebody is sharing a sand, a photo of a sand tray. One of the things that we'll do is we'll go through that process of identifying what are the themes in that sand tray scene. And then also we use that to figure out what stage of play therapy that their client is in, depending on what play therapy model they're using. And then that will help them figure out what to do. That's that clinical decision making process. And if they're at that stage of and they're using a play therapy model like Adlerian Play Therapy or Gestalt Play Therapy. Then we, we can talk about maybe a way to go about helping clients connect the dots using that sand tray scene and the, the themes that were identified in there. And so Play Therapy Elevation Circle and Play Therapy Academy. We, we do consultation in both once, just a little bit more hands-on and we do a deep more of a deeper dive. That's Plate Therapy Academy. Elevation Circle is more for like, people may already have their RPT or maybe they're not sure if they want their RPT credential, but they want the support. We meet once a month, not twice a month. So there's some differences in there, but both of them provide that opportunity for what I feel like is really important, which is getting support to, um, know how to get the best results for your clients supporting each other. This is hard work. And so their readiness to receive the information, um, is really gonna depend on what stage of play therapy they're in. And then your therapy, your play therapy model, is gonna influence how you help your clients make the connection between what's represented in their sand tray and in their current struggles. So let's, let's say you really want to, or maybe you're using an integrative model and the models that you're integrating are, will, um, part of that model is that you help them make the connections. There's a couple of ways that you can do this, and I have found, I do this even with adults. I have found this, really, really useful. And there's two things that you can do. One is staying in the metaphor. So for example, um, a, a pretty standard rule. I don't know if it's a rule. Um, I don't know a better word right now. So I'll just say rule. Um, a pretty standard rule of, rule of thumb, let's say that. And play therapy is, stay in the metaphor. Don't name something until the child names it, because it in their mind it might not be what you think it is. So this way, if you don't name it and you use some of that general language, like this one or that one, or this guy, or that guy, or, um, that one, or this one, then you're pretty safe until they name it. You. So let's say they tell you a little bit. You've gotten to the end of the sand tray making process. Your client tells you, I'm done. And so you look at them and you invite them to say as much or as little as they would like about their sand tray, and they tell you a little story. Very brief. Very short. Short, and you'd like to explore it a little bit more. One of the things you do, you can do is stay in the metaphor and you might say, well, I wonder what this one would say, or, I wonder what that one would say, or, I wonder what it's like being in this scene or, you know, whatever they've described or this world, or I wonder how that one felt about that over, you know, something happened. I wonder how that one felt about what happened to them. So you can stay in the metaphor and explore using the metaphor. And if they, if they wanna talk a little bit more about it, then awesome. But if they don't and they really just look at you and they go, I don't know, then I would just leave it there. I would not push it anymore because then, um, that's their way of saying to you, I really don't wanna talk about it. And they, if they, the idea is they've used that sand tray making process to do whatever it is they need to do internally. So this is where a lot of times we just need to trust the process that they got out of it, what they needed to get out of it at this point in time, in their treatment process. And so this is where we, we say in play therapy, trust the process. What that means is you are trusting that if you hold that free and protected space, stick with your play therapy model, know how to use it in each stage of the play therapy process, you, your client will eventually move towards healing and wholeness. So what we don't wanna do is do an interpretation before they're ready and create, um, some kind of internal distress for them. To be honest, I feel like it breaks a little bit of the trust sometimes if we've set in here, you can do all you, you can, you can say anything you wanna say. You could do almost anything you wanna do. If there's anything you can't do, I will let you know. That's a child-centered play therapy thing. Um, but there's a version of that I think that happens in all play therapy models. If we say that, then we need to mean it, which means we need to help them feel comfortable in, in respecting where they are in the play therapy process. So one of the things you can do is stay in the metaphor. Another thing that you can do that I, I found very helpful, I do this with kids, teenagers, and adults when I'm using the sand tray making process, is use a little bit of kind of a narrative therapy approach of giving voice to the symbols akA miniatures in the sandbox. So you might, you might ask, well, I wonder in here, which of these has something to say and I wonder what it would like to say. And, um, they, they might think for a minute, and I, and if they're thinking and they're not quite sure, I, I, I'm oftentimes I'll preface, excuse me, preface that with, well, you know, in here it can be however we want it to be. And in here, I wonder if one of these miniatures could talk. I wonder which one would have something to say. I wonder what it would say. So I'll say it like that. They'll think for a minute and then they'll pick one. And I'll say, well, I wonder what it would wonder what it would like to say. And then they'll say, say it. And I'll, and I may say, well, I wonder if there's another, another miniature in here that would like to say something to that one, the one that just spoke. Or I might have that two miniatures in the San sand tray. Have a conversation. Um, so you can kind of add some of that giving voice as part of a way of exploring what's going on, and maybe through that process, clients at some level can make some connections in their minds. It's a more subtle way of introducing some of the themes and helping them to make the connections while still also respecting where they are in the process and not, not rushing them in a way that makes them feel uncomfortable, and now it no longer feels safe in there. So, so those are three things to consider about using the sand tray. Um. And answering that question of whether or not you should interpret your child's, your, uh, client's themes in the sand tray to them. So let me do a quick recap. So, recognizing themes in sand tray a really important part of the play therapy process. We use the scale of recognizing themes to help us with our clinical decision making. Ultimately, though, clients are still gonna get what they need, whether or not we interpret it to them. That's also influenced by your play therapy model. Um, so I think the more important thing is that we know how to hold that sand tray making process in the play therapy sessions in a way that helps clients feel safe holding that free and protected space. I also think it's more important that we're tuned and present in that moment than we're sitting there analyzing and trying to identify themes that occurred in that play therapy process. So it's it's not, it's not either or. It's not either. All yes, you have to interpret or no, you can't interpret or not. Um. What the themes are. I, I think it's one of those questions that may, is it depends and it depends on the next thing, which is your theoretical model. Your theory model is kind of like your GPS to know how to get through each stage of the play therapy process. That includes the sand tray making process. Your play therapy model is going to influence how you hold that process. It's gonna influence what you say, how you say it and when you say it. It's also gonna influence how you're making sense of what those themes are in the sand tray scene. Um, and then the third, the third thing that we talked about is, um. Your client's readiness to receive the information. And again, that's gonna be influenced by your theory model, that even if you are making those connections for your clients, you're thinking about what stage of the play therapy process are they in and in this specific phase stage of play therapy, what are we working on in this stage? And if we're working on specific things in this stage, does that include, I'm helping you make the connection between what's going on in this session and what's going on in your in your everyday life that that's the reason that you're coming in, the issues that they're experiencing and how you say that. And then if you, if you want to kind of help your clients go a little deeper and maybe in a more subtle way. Help them make the connections about what's going on in their sand tray or maybe explore it a little more in depth. You can use the strategies of staying in the metaphor and giving voice to the miniatures. So that is it for today's livestream episode. Um, if you found the information helpful, please feel free to share it across your social media. Um, you're watching on YouTube, click that like and sub subscribe button. Um, and also notifications. Feel free to save this if you're watching on LinkedIn or, um, I also stream on Instagram. Feel free to save this as well. The replay's gonna automatically generate after the broadcast ends and. So if you're interested in, um, Play Therapy Academy, that's where the Play Therapy Academy is a, is a much smaller group than Elevation Circle. We meet twice a month. We do case presentations and get a lot of feedback. So the really, the focus in Play Therapy Academy is to help you feel confident and competent that you, um, know how to apply a play therapy model through all of the stages of play therapy. And also feel more confident working with parents. So if you're interested in Play Therapy Academy, then you'll definitely wanna schedule a 30 minute video call with me and we can talk about Play Therapy Academy, but maybe Elevation Circle's a better fit for you and we can talk about that one as well. So if you're not sure, but you know you want more support'cause you're tired of doing it alone and, um, you want some other play therapists where we actually get on calls together and we do the consultation and we have some other supports in place and some other things with courses and trainings and, and other things. And feel free to schedule that video call with me. Um, you can pop over to my website at rh play therapy training.com. That's Renewing Hearts play therapy training to.com. For Play Therapy Academy, you're gonna wanna go on the supervision page. You'll see information about Play Therapy Academy and Elevation Circle, and also, um, um, click on Play Therapy Academy and you'll see where you can schedule that 30 minute video call with me. We will also put links in the comments, or feel free to message me and I will send you the link. Make sure that you get that. If you're all, I have another training coming up. This is virtual and in-person there'll be a recorded option as well. It's called Healing Trauma Through Play Therapy, a neuroscience and attachment approach. That is coming up in June, so if you're interested in that, then also pop over to my website. You can find more information. And we will also put, um, links in the comments. All righty, I will see you next week. Bye for now. Thank you for joining me on this episode of Next Level Play Therapy. I hope you found the discussion valuable and gained new insights and ideas to support your work helping children, adolescents, and families heal. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Your feedback helps to improve and reach more people who can benefit from this information. Remember. Play therapy is a powerful tool for healing and growth. Whether you're a new play therapist or experienced, I encourage you to continue your learning journey to unlock the potential of play in your own work in relationships. If you have any questions or topics, suggestions for future episode. I'd love to hear from you. Connect with me on social media and visit my website at Renewing Hearts Play Therapy Training to stay updated on upcoming episodes, trainings, and resources. Thank you once again for listening to Next Level Play Therapy. Until next time, keep playing, learning and growing.